According to the manufacturer of the solid state system I installed, it does not work on machines like mine that have altered, lightened, flywheels. This wasn't disclosed to me when I talked to their US rep prior to the sale, and even if it was, I'm not sure I'd have recalled the previous owner telling me about him lightening the flywheel. I found out when a google search turned up a page on the manufacturer's web site. When I went through the receipts that came with the bike, I found one from a reputable shop that listed lots of R69S parts along with "lighten flywheel", so I think I've found the source of the problem. Apparently the electronics make an estimate of crankshaft speed based on the time it takes for a raised portion of the magnetic alternator rotor to pass under a sensor. From that measurement it calculates the amount of advance or ****** for firing the spark plug. Since the flywheel doesn't accelerate or decelerate at the same rate as the factory flywheel they used to calibrate the calculation, the amount of advance/****** is off, especially during kick starting. The calculation isn't adjustable (I think it's done with discrete analog components, capacitors, inductors, and resistors). So I'm working with another fella that says he'll swap me his factory flywheel for mine, straight across. The wrinkle there is that two weights of flywheel were used in the R69S, and his is the lighter one. That means it may not be as heavy as the one upon which the calculation is based, and I'll still have problems. But maybe they won't be bad enough to worry about; I'll just have to try it and see. Regardless, I'll need to make up some tooling to prevent the flywheel from moving while I apply approximately 200 lb. ft. of torque to break the bolt that holds it in place loose, and another tool that will actually pull the flywheel off the crank taper. That 3/4" impact wrench is gonna get a workout on this job!
